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Monday, April 28, 2014

Thorin Actor Richard Armitage Talks ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’

SCREEN RANT
Published 8 hours ago by Anthony Vieira

Director Peter Jackson’s epic prequel trilogy to his previous epic trilogy The Lord of the Rings culminates this December with the recently re-named The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. It’s been a long journey for The Hobbit - before Jackson signed on to direct, Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim) was originally going to make the project in two parts.

Jackson took J.R.R. Tolkien’s single volume and expanded the story and scope well beyond the main narrative, which followed the simple hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) as he was drafted by wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellan) into assisting dwarf king Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and his brethren in re-taking the Lonely Mountain from the fearsome dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch).

The previous chapters in The Hobbit saga, An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug, surpassed Peter Jackson’s LOTR trilogy in epic spectacle, and now star Richard Armitage has hinted that the final film will include some suitably memorable moments.

As Armitage told HitFix (via CBM):

“It’s going to be quite a nostalgic event I think. It’s going to be 15 years of seeing Middle Earth on the big screen, the culmination of Peter Jackson’s life’s work. I think the ‘Battle of the Five Armies’ is something that I cannot wait to see.”

Armitage echoed this sentiment to OTRC, adding: “There’s a couple of big surprises. [...] I think it will be probably quite a cinematic event.”